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NALC RAP SESSION INFORMATION

  • NALC Rap Session Cheers Proposal To Revamp City Delivery Work

  • Young Says Any New Agreement Must Prohibit ‘Contracting Out’

  • Proposal Includes Early-outs, Mon-Fri Work Schedule, Separate Saturday Workforce, Better Health Benefits
“The proposal delivers an all-regular workforce with weekends off as well as a significant reduction in the level of forced overtime. For the Postal Service, the proposal offers savings in the billions from reduced overtime and benefit costs in the future. However, it was offered only on the condition that the USPS give us new protections against contracting out and that it share its financial savings in the form of higher general wage increases.” - President Young.

NALC’s Historic Proposal

Here are the key elements of NALC’s bargaining proposal for a new National Agreement that would revolutionize city delivery work in the Postal Service:

  • A prohibition against contracting out any work within territory now served by city delivery letter carriers, including in-fill development and natural additions to existing routes.
     
  • Five-year contract, with annual wage increases and continued twice-a-year costof- living adjustments.
     
  • A dramatic change in the health benefits whereby the Postal Service would pay 85 percent of premiums in the NALC Plan, and 72 percent in other Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) plans. This proposal would result in substantial savings to the Postal Service. Unlike the health benefit concessions recently accepted by the three other postal unions, NALC’s proposal calls for letter carriers to receive a share of these savings in the form of additional general wage increases. In addition, the incentive to join the NALC Plan will allow the plan to be tailored to the needs of letter carriers and to promote better health.
     
  • A major restructuring of the city carrier workforce: All letter carriers would become full-time regulars with Monday-Friday schedules by the end of the contract. Grade 2 carriers would be retained with revamped duties. All casuals and transitional employees would be eliminated. A Saturday-only workforce of NALC-represented bargaining unit carriers would be created. NALC and the Postal Service would jointly approach OPM and, if necessary, Congress to secure regulatory or legislative changes to ensure that retired letter carriers may be employed on Saturdays with no dimunition of their annuities. New hires would be Step A and retirees Step 0. Retirees would have preference for positions. Saturday new hires would have priority for vacancies in Monday-Friday workforce. USPS would request from OPM authority to offer an early-out. A task force would be created to implement the workforce reorganization plan. Finally, the substantial savings to the Postal Service resulting from this restructuring will be shared with all letter carriers in the form of general wage increases.

 
 
General Acceptance
Young explained that all of the proposals that the union suggested — and apparently won general acceptance — would be meaningless if the Service could outsource city delivery territory to private contractors.

“Job security — it’s the holy grail of every union in America,” he said. “We need a strong and prosperous Postal Service led by well-paid city letter carriers.”

But Young emphasized that it was not just job security that is on the line in this year’s protracted negotiations for a National Agreement, it is the survival of the Postal Service itself, the same thing that led the NALC to work so hard for enactment of postal reform legislation in the 109th Congress.

Securing the future, Young told the crowd, is what led the NALC to propose “a bold, strategic alternative to the low road of contracting out ... an historic win-win contract designed to reward city carriers for their unique contributions to the Postal Service while preparing the USPS for success in the 21st Century.”

Although the formal face-to-face collective bargaining has concluded and the dispute is headed toward mediation and/or binding arbitration, Young said NALC’s proposal still remains on the table. He said the union was maintaining communication with USPS officials to ensure that every possible avenue for agreement is explored before going to the next step.

The detailed explanation of NALC’s proposal — disclosed for the first time — and a review of the Postal Service’s institutional morass that stymied talks in the final days of negotiations were welcomed by the branch leaders assembled in Los Angeles.

Download or Open this NALC Bulletin Here (PDF)
 

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If There is No Agreement

What happens if the Postal Service hierarchy turns its back on letter carriers and tosses away this golden opportunity to streamline its workforce for the future? President Young explained that under the recently enacted postal reform legislation, the next step is a continuation of negotiations under the supervision of a mediator to be appointed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. If that process does not result in an agreement, the final step is a referral of the impasse to an interest arbitration panel which will be authorized to hear the parties’ evidence and argument and issue a final and binding settlement. In the meantime, pending future developments, President Young commended all NALC members for their patience and perseverance. He also urged members to continue to support existing cooperative programs such as Customer Connect and route evaluation and health and safety initiatives.

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